The invention relates to a retractable roof for vehicles comprising several rigid roof elements able to move between a position in which they cover the passenger compartment of the vehicle and a position in which they are stored in the rear boot of the vehicle.
Such a retractable roof makes it possible to convert a vehicle of the saloon or coupxc3xa9 type into a vehicle of the cabriolet type.
In known designs, the roof elements are, when they cover the passenger compartment, connected to each other and to the front and rear parts of the bodywork by locking means controlled by rods extending inside the roof elements, driven in rotation by an electric motor housed in a rear roof element.
Such locking means were described in the French patent application Nxc2x0 99 03 234 filed in the name of the applicant.
Such a system makes it possible to centralise the control for locking the roof elements together and with the bodywork using a single electric motor.
The aim of the present invention is to improve the above locking system, so that it helps to improve the rigidity of the retractable roof, when it covers the passenger compartment of the vehicle and the roof elements are locked together and with the bodywork.
According to the invention, this retractable roof is characterised in that the locking means comprise, for each roof element, at least one pivoting locking finger with a hook, cooperating with a fixed finger secured to an adjacent roof element or with a fixed complementary locking member secured to the front or rear part of the bodywork, the pivoting of each pivoting locking finger with a hook being controlled by the translational movement of a nut mounted on a threaded part of one of the said rods driven in rotation by an electric motor.
The above locking system makes it possible to lock the roof elements together in a longitudinal direction and in a perpendicular direction, with a clamping effect obtained by means of the action of the screws on the fingers with hooks, which makes it possible to obtain connections resisting bending and twisting forces.
Thus the retractable roof equipped with such a locking system actively participates in the rigidity of the whole of the vehicle bodywork.
Other particularities and advantages of the invention will emerge below.